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An intruder who was stabbed to death when he broke into a 63-year-old blind man's home was lawfully killed, a coroner ruled yesterday.

Lee Kelso, 23, had been on a seven-hour drinking session when he kicked in the front door of Thomas O'Connor's home in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Mr O'Connor, who is registered blind, told police he had stabbed Kelso in self-defence using a knife kept in his lounge for protection.

The south Manchester coroner, John Pollard, sitting at Stockport magistrates court, ruled yesterday that the killing had been lawful. He said Mr O'Connor was an elderly man in poor health compared with Kelso, who was big, fit and young.

"I have no doubt at all that Mr O'Connor was trying to protect himself and his wife," he said.

"One has to look at whether what happened was reasonable. I believe Mr O'Connor acted in reasonable boundaries in protecting himself and his wife." Mr O'Connor was arrested after the incident on June 14 last year but was never charged.

He told police he got into a row with Kelso after he and his wife were woken by the sound of their garden gate being banged open.

He said he went downstairs when he heard Kelso kicking the front door and took the knife from a dresser in the lounge. As he did so the front door split open and came off its hinges.

A scuffle ensued and Kelso was left with two stab wounds, one of which proved fatal. Kelso, a coal merchant's assistant, returned to the pub where he had been drinking earlier but died an hour later in hospital.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Foster told the inquest he had sought legal advice from a barrister who said it would be "impossible for the Crown to disprove self-defence".

DCI Foster read a statement from Alan Conrad QC who said Mr Kelso had a record of anti-social behaviour which would have had to be disclosed in any prosecution.

--------------------The above is an extract from my fictional novel, "The random postings of Edame".

In the beginning was the word. And man could not handle the word, and the hearing of the word, and he asked God to take away his ears so that he might live in peace without having to hear words which might upset his equinamity or corrupt the unblemished purity of his conscience.

And God, hearing this desperate plea from His creation, wrinkled His mighty brow for a moment and then leaned down toward man, beckoning that he should come close so as to hear all that was about to be revealed to him.

"Fuck you," He whispered, and frowned upon the pathetic supplicant before retreating to His heavens.

War on drugs?? hardly where weed is concerned...weed is practically legal here now.

You don't think the fact that the guy with the "sword" (an edged weapon only twelve inches (30 cm) long is a sword?) got eight years while the three survivors will end up with far lesser sentences has anything to do with the fact that the sword dude was a drug dealer?

Suppose he had been a diamond merchant instead. Would his sentence have been the same?

We don't know the precise circumstances. It could be that the group of men was running away, and the defendant chased them and the victim down from behind. Common law in this country only provides for the use of reasonable force in self-defence. That is how it should be. Otherwise people could murder with impunity.

The company I work for starts doing it in a few months, about a 1 in 10 chance per year of getting tested. I still get angry about it quite often because the whole system is designed to make me look guilty if I refuse (which I'm planning to). I like my job, but not so much I want to let them analyse my fucking piss.

--------------------The above is an extract from my fictional novel, "The random postings of Edame".

In the beginning was the word. And man could not handle the word, and the hearing of the word, and he asked God to take away his ears so that he might live in peace without having to hear words which might upset his equinamity or corrupt the unblemished purity of his conscience.

And God, hearing this desperate plea from His creation, wrinkled His mighty brow for a moment and then leaned down toward man, beckoning that he should come close so as to hear all that was about to be revealed to him.

"Fuck you," He whispered, and frowned upon the pathetic supplicant before retreating to His heavens.